Imaginary Heraldry

Medieval heraldry did not limit itself to the heraldry of
existing individuals, families and entities. The notion
that heraldry did not begin before the 12th century does not
become clear to heraldists until the 17th century, and it
seemed perfectly normal to attribute arms to individuals
belonging to the pre-heraldic era. Another source of
imaginary heraldry were novels or romances, whose fictitious
characters were given arms. To this latter category belongs
Arthurian heraldry, that is, the arms attributed to the
knights of the Round Table and other characters appearing
in various Arthurian legends and cycles.

Excerpts of John Lydgate's early 15th c. adaptation into English,
the Troy Book, are available
here with an introduction. A 19th c. edition of Sainte-Maure is
available in scanned format at Gallica
(with a glossary).

Miscellaneous

Neubecker mentions that
the Chapter of Mainz shows the arms of Christ (the charges are
for the most part the instruments of the Passion). The Book of St. Alban's
(1486) states: " Criste was a gentylman of his moder's behalue, and
bare cotarmure of aunseturis." According to Morgan (1661),
Adam bore plain Gules, and Eve bore plain Argent; logically, Abel
had quarterly argent and gules. Joseph, recalling his coat, had
chequy sable and argent. Each of Jacob's son has his own (the tribes
of Israel did in fact have symbols, though I can only recall the lion
of Judas).

And, of course, Dürer made a beautiful engraving of Death's coat of arms,
shown in Neubecker next to God's coat of arms.